A Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO), Builders Hub Impact Investment Program (BHIIP) has paid the tuition fees of 600 indigent pupils across public schools in Ihima, Okehi Local Government Area of Kogi.
The BHIIP founder, Mrs Natasha Akpoti, also the Senatorial Candidate, Kogi Central, Social Democratic Party (SDP), told newsmen in Okehi on Wednesday that it had adopted 600 pupils since 2016.
Akpoti said her NGO had been paying their tuition fees with other benefits since the pupils’ adoption.
She said the decision was in commemoration of her late father, Dr Jimoh Akpoti, who died on Nov. 3, 1998.
According to her, the gesture is to demonstrate her penchant for education; the need for an average Nigerian to have education as demonstrated by her father while he was alive.
“My NGO has been taking care of the pupils’ welfare for three years; paying their school fees, providing school bags, clothes, sandals and other needs for them.
“We have also opened a mini-library equipped with a set of 22 desktop computers at the Builders Hub Community Learning Resource Center where the children are being trained,” Apoti said.
Mr Haruna Bashir, the Team Lead of the Volunteer Group, said he usually got emotional whenever a pupil who had lost both parents stood in front of him for data verification.
“I weep without knowing it, when I ask pupils about their parents and they respond that they are dead and that they are living with aged grandmothers or guardians.
“But I always assure them that their school fees are being paid and other things covered by a kind mother, Ms Natasha Akpoti,” Bashir said.
Mr Momoh Jimoh, the Headmaster, Central Primary School Obeiba, said it was his first time of getting to know an individual, who would single-handedly pay tuition fees for 600 children.
Jimoh said the NGO had been providing school bags, clothes, sandals and other things for the less-privileged children every year.
“278 out of the 600 indigent pupils are orphans.
“Our teachers in their own little way have been supporting this laudable programme by providing the pupils’ data for verification annually.
“You are not rich until you can count the number of people you have helped to realize their potential and dreams,” the headmaster said.
He called on other politicians to emulate Akpoti.
